A Heartfelt Thank You
by CallMeGeneralAwesome
Summary: Haley wants to thank Julian for saving Nathan.  She aims to do so while she, Julian, and Brooke are all at the hospital for Nathan.  Mainly Haley/Julian friendship.


**Howdy everybody. I'm back to writing. So this idea kind of fell into my lap and now I'm writing it. :) **

**I hope y'all enjoy it. As usual, I don't own anything in this story at all. This was inspired by that emotional rollercoaster of an episode called "Danny Boy", also known as episode 9x11 of a little show called One Tree Hill.**

**This is a one-shot between Haley and Julian mainly, because I totally dig their friendship. Other friendships and relationships will be mentioned. It does not completely follow the chronology of the episode. Like, I add stuff in at certain points before they show up on the show and things like that. Hope no one minds too much. Now, on with the story!**

It had been a long night for Julian Baker. He was in shock, to be honest. He was standing there, covered in the blood of a known murderer and generally bad guy, yet still found himself wanting that known murderer and generally bad guy to survive.

He was standing in the hospital waiting room, pondering this. He was thinking about the evening he had just experienced, too. He wanted to help save Nathan Scott. He was able to admit to himself that he needed to do this; he needed to save this man's life in order to forgive himself for endangering the life of his infant son.

But Julian had other motives too. As modest as he can be, Julian knew he was a good person. He wanted to help save Nathan because it was the right thing to do. He wanted to help save Nathan because, even though Julian and Nathan were acquaintances at best, their wives were best friends and that meant something. Julian wanted to help save Nathan because he meant so much to people that Julian cared about: Brooke and Jamie and Haley.

Haley James-Scott didn't care who saved Nathan, as long as he got saved. She just wanted her husband, the love of her life, the father of her children, to come home and be home. She wanted to watch him play with their kids and watch him smile as Lydia walks and she wants to crawl into bed next to him and fall asleep in his arms. Haley was willing to feed him all the rocky road ice cream he wanted, as long as it meant that he was home and he was safe. Haley wanted Nathan back in her life and back in the lives of her kids. In short, Haley wanted Nathan.

Soon, Julian found himself going into Nathan's hospital room with Brooke. Haley was already in the room. Julian's head was spinning a bit; he had just found out that Brooke was attacked – again – by Xavier. Brooke assured him that she was okay, but still, it pained him to hear that Brooke had been so close to being hurt again. But, he saw that Brooke seemed to be okay, so he put on a brave face and went to see Nathan.

Brooke went to go hug Nathan as Haley walked up to Julian.

"You have now saved the two most important men in my life and I don't know how to thank you," Haley said, opening her arms up for a hug.

Julian exhaled as he smiled. "I'm just glad I could help," he said modestly. "And now I can cross 'steal cop car' off my bucket list."

They all chuckled a bit, then Haley and Brooke hugged. Julian stood there, unsure of what to do.

Nathan walked up to Julian and hugged him, giving him a few pats on the back. "Thank you, Julian," he said once he backed away.

Julian smiled. "Don't mention it."

"Dad!" exclaimed a young voice from the doorway. Jamie ran in and engulfed his father in a hug. Deb followed, towing Lydia in a stroller.

Everyone smiled at the sight, but no smile was wider and brighter than Nathan's.

"Hey, buddy!" he exclaimed happily towards his son. "I missed you! Did you have a good time with Uncle Lucas and Aunt Peyton?"

Jamie smiled. "Yeah, Dad, but nothing beats having you back."

Nathan smiled wider as he backed out of the hug. He got down on his knee so he could see eye to eye with his son. The motion hurt his sore muscles a little bit so he winced, but the pain didn't matter.

"I am so glad to be back, son," he said with a hand on Jamie's shoulder. He pulled Jamie in for a hug again.

"Uh, we're just going to be outside," Brooke said.

"Yeah, we'll come back later," Julian said, waving goodbye as he ushered Brooke towards the door. "Have you seen a doctor yet?" he asked Brooke quietly as they walked towards the door.

"No, but the EMT said I'm fine," Brooke said, not wanting a fuss to be made over her.

"Well, have you eaten anything?" he asked. They were now in the hallway outside Nathan's room.

"I had coffee, so I-"

"Come on, let's go get you some real food from the cafeteria," Julian said with a smile.

Brooke rolled her eyes a sighed a bit. "Fine," she said. However, she was secretly happy that Julian wanted to take care of her so much.

"Hey, Julian!" Haley said, walking towards them. "Can I talk to you for a bit?"

"Uh…" Julian said, turning towards Brooke then back to Haley, then back to Brooke.

"Go, I can find the cafeteria by myself," Brooke said. "Lord knows I been here often enough."

Julian made a face. "Okay," he said. "But make sure you eat and drink enough. You're sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine!" Brooke said. She patted his arm supportively. "Go talk to Hales. I'll meet you in the cafeteria when you're done."

Julian nodded. "Okay."

He walked towards Haley. "What's up?"

"Do you want to go sit down?" Haley asked, gesturing towards the lobby on the floor.

"Sure," Julian said, following Haley into the familiar room. Brooke was right; they did come here too often.

Haley sat down on one of the chairs and Julian followed suit.

After a few moments of silence, Julian spoke up. "Are you okay…?" he asked, because he was expecting Haley to say something.

Haley took a breath. "I really can not thank you enough for saving Nathan tonight."

"Haley-" Julian tried to say, but was cut off.

"No, I should say this," Haley said. "Julian, Nathan told me everything. Dan told him that you wanted to come help but Dan told you to leave because you had a family to protect. But still, you chose to stay and help Nathan. You chose to help _my_ family. And I can not thank you enough."

"Haley, it wasn't-"

"Don't say it wasn't a big deal, because it was," Haley said. "You could've gone home and none of us would have thought any less of you, but you stayed and saved Nathan's life. And you probably helped prolong Dan's life a little bit; if you hadn't been there to drive the car to the hospital, Dan probably would have died there in Nathan's arms."

Haley took another deep breath. "You saved my husband's life," she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "Because of you, my kids have their father back. I can't stop thinking about how I would have raised them alone and how Lydia would have never really known her father and Nathan would have missed so much of their lives. I don't want that, I want him to be around and I want our kids to know him and I want to see him teach Jamie how to shave and I want to see him walk Lydia down the aisle way in the future and you made all that possible by saving him and bringing him home."

By now, Haley was in tears. She leaned over and put her head on Julian's shoulder.

"Hey, hey, Haley it's okay," he said soothingly. "Nathan is home, he is home and he is going to be there for all of that." He started to rub her back, trying to calm her down. "Haley, I know that I physically helped bring him here but you are the reason he is alive, Haley. You are the reason he is breathing. He spent so long in captivity and the only reason he kept breathing, the only reason he forced his heart to keep beating is that so he could see you again one day. You saved him way before I did, Haley."

Julian stood up and helped Haley stand, too.

"Listen, Haley, it is all okay. It is all going to be okay," he whispered into her ear as she hugged him.

She collected herself and took a step back. She wiped her eyes. "I still can not find the words to express how grateful I am to you, Julian Baker."

Julian smiled. "Don't worry about. You're welcome." He stood next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. "Now, we are going to go back in there and you going to go enjoy this time with your husband and your kids. You are not going to think about everything that could have happened, because none of that matters anymore because now Nathan is home. And you are not going to thank me again."

Haley smiled. "Okay, I won't." Julian let her out from under his arm and she started to walk towards the hospital room. After a few steps, she turned. "Remember how you picked out the flowers for Quinn when she came home from the hospital?"

Julian blushed. "Yeah…"

"Nathan will never admit to this, but he thought they were lovely," Haley said. She turned back towards the hospital room. "Especially the calla lilies!" she called over her shoulder.

Julian shook his head and laughed. For the first time that night, he felt like it was going to be okay.

With that, he headed down to the cafeteria to go see his wife. After the recent events, he couldn't imagine being anywhere but with her right now.

**The end.**

**So, what do y'all think? Please review! It really means a lot to me if you do. Any criticism is constructive, so please tell me what you like about it if you like anything and what you don't like about it if there is anything you don't like.**

**Also! When Haley talks about wanting to see Nathan teach Jamie how to shave, I believe in episode like 7x19 or something – the one where Quinn has her gallery show and Nathan and Jamie stay home and play Rockband and dress up as members of KISS and whatnot – Nathan kind of sort of teaches Jamie to shave? Like Nathan uses a razor and Jamie uses like a spoon, I think. So I am writing this under the belief that Haley does not know that happened.**

**Again, thanks for reading! And thanks for dealing with my long author's notes. :)**


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